Racing v Bay Pre Match Thoughts
Racing looks to get back on the winning side of things on Saturday at 4pm on ESPN against Bay FC. The Fill the Fam match has a mixed history, so it will be interesting to see how the team performs.
If the last couple of matches have reminded us of anything, it is that you should never tally your points before kick the ball. On paper, the matches in LA and Seattle seemed winnable (and they were theoretically) but Racing found themselves in early holes in both. It seems to me like they just don't have enough “something” to put in a 90 minutes where they can keep both their hearts and heads in the match. Like always, we have seen flashes of intensity and flashes of wisdom but never both for very long. The theme that continues to stick in my head is randomness. There very rarely seems to be a rhyme or reason to how much energy Racing is going to bring to the beginning of a match. The team is really at the mercy of the random nature of existence for the most part. One of the things that I have liked about this season is that the top 3 teams in the league have figured out how to avoid the general random nature of the NWSL that has plagued the last few seasons. KC, Orlando, and Washington have records where their wins greatly exceed their losses or draws. That indicates a desire to overcome the nature of chance and take matches to their opponents. Racing is still struggling in a state of existence in which the metaphorical direction of the wind is likely to determine the outcome most matches. There is a certain fragility to such an existence.
On Saturday we will get another pulse check to see if this city/region has enough love in its heart to support 2 professional soccer teams. With the attendance record that was set for the Thunder match, the Fill the Fam match this year has seemed a bit like an afterthought. I don't have any real inside info, but my gut tells me that the attendance for this match isn’t going to come close to the attendance for the Utah match and I would also guess that it is likely to be lower than the last two iterations of Fill the Fam. Other than the Utah match, the attendance has been in the 6000ish range. Louisville City is still averaging 10,000. The Kansas City Current appears to be selling out every single match in their new 11,500 seat stadium. I think 10,000 per match is Racing’s aspirational figure. I don’t think Racing’s attendance issues have a single root cause barrier and will therefore take a multi-year fix with mutliple solutions.
On the pitch, Racing is slowly getting some players who are closer to returning like Ary and Kanu, but they will be without Arin Wright and almost certainly Taylor Flint on Saturday. Kirsten Wright is now further away than she was just a few weeks ago. Ellie Jean will need to step up again and it's been a while since she's played a full 90 minutes in the League (July 9th, 2023 if you want to get really specific). Other than a couple of matches, Bay has been in contention for points just about every time they have taken the pitch. I expect them to perform much better than Utah did on their debut trip to Lynn Family Stadium.
